Fatal Flaw
by Entendre Euphenist
Summary: Somewhere, the gods have turned their backs on the world, and somebody has to pay. And who do you think will step up to the chopping block to become history's scape- goat? Pairings are implied.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:: Sorry for the even longer delay. If you've checked( or not) my profile, you'll know that my computer is completely nuts and hates me. :( I had to mad scramble to rewrite EVERYTHING, and hopefully, it's still up to snuff. However, I have a backup of all chapters from now on incase something like that happens again so, no worries.

Too bad I had to learn that lesson the hard way, huh?

Disclaimer:: I do not own anything that even resembles Inuyasha and the gang. Just a crazy stalker and my horrible plotline.

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter One:: Feelings

..~..

Somewhere, there are Gods. Beings with powers unforetold. Magnificent creatures capable of indescribable feats. With a mere thought, they are able to destroy us, and with another, build this world anew. They are all powerful, all omnipotent beings. They know all. They see all.

They created all.

A council of divine sat together. Using their powers; pushing their boundaries. They struggled to come to an agreement, and they quarelled, the universe trembling in wake of their chaos. They laughed together; the sun joining in on their joys. So that in the end, they had completed together the greatest masterpiece known to man.

They created time; the great tapestry.

And they wanted to rejoice in the fruit of their labors. They wanted to bask in the shade of their greatest triumph. They wanted to lay down their weaver's loom and smile in content satisfaction at the Fated fabric which was their creation, and so they plucked the piece from the loom. After all of the loose ends had been tied, and all the frayed edges smoothed and cut away, there before them stood a great problem.

An enormous, gaping hole.

A place on the tapestry of fate over which they had forgotten to weave.

A place over which they had no _control_.

The Gods became worried. With no power to uphold goodness, the balance would tip irreversibly. Why, that one spot could undue the whole tapestry! Millions of lives were at stake. With no influence over such a large area of destiny, evil could situated itself quite nicely into history. Such a horrible fate to befall humankind!

Such a disaster! How could the greatest endeavor the Gods set out to accomplish possibly end in such disarray? What to do? What to do?

Somewhere, there are gods. Beings with powers unforetold. However, these beings are still susceptible to the downfalls of their creations. They become emotional. They become moody. They grieve and so, the gods turn their backs to the world, frustrated and confused, leaving you to deal with their mess.

They have given up on you. They have forsaken you in favor of wallowing in the woe that is their anguish at the plight of their beloved Fate. They grieve, ignorant to the sorrow of the people they have forsaken.

They waste away until they become nothing more than fabled sentries of old. They vanish to a place in the mind where gods are nothing but encouraging legends told to desperate children to give them hope in a dark world. Stories which are forgotten by the next morn'. Forgotten by the very world they have doomed. The very world they have forgotten.

However, one woman has not forgotten you. She has seen your fate, and watched your struggle, and deemed you worthy of her aid- which is not an easy thing to do. So for your sake, she slinks quietly into the citadel of the gods, she enters the hall of the tapestry. She sees the failed attempt at history.

And she will fix the hole in the tapestry. She is that kind.

However, nothing is without a price. While she may fix this tear, give order to chaos, you'll be the one stuck with what she gives you, now won't you? Is that a chance you're willing to take? Of course it is. After all, what do you have to lose?

The rules of the game are thus; she makes a move, you do likewise, and so on. Simple? Well, nothing is simple when you play games with the fickle mistress Karma. She had already made her move.

"The ball is now in your court. How will you play, Kagome Higurashi?" and so she waits for your reply.

* * *

"This is all my fault," Kagome says to herself on silent nights when the air is thick, but no more so than her tears. By now, even her smile falls away, trailing down her face to pool around her chin. She tries through sheer force of will to keep up that crumbling facade of happy. Fails through sheer sorrow however, and is generally ignored through sheer experience.

Shippou is an exception to this rule, as well as many other things. He is unaware that somethings aren't Inuyasha's fault and that maybe it isn't good idea to bring up the inuyoukai at the moment, at all.

"She will get over it in time," Miroku tells a worrying tajiya nonchalantly. Whether or not he believes this himself is up to discussion as the tiny smile that notes his lies is not on his face, but in his eyes when he speaks, and Sango is unsure what that means. She is unsure of what alot of things mean, especially how this particular death might mean something to her. Death has become quite common to the demon slayer. After all, one must kill something to slay it.

The woman who screamed when she got a scraped knee will shed no tears for the death of some _thing_that didn't even bleed when it was shredded to bits. She's seen people shredded to bits, and she knows what death really looks like. Nothing at all close to resembling the form of a broken doll.

That woman _broke_, she didn't die. Sango knows the difference, feel it every day as she walks worn pathways with four people who are so spirited and alive, and she's so not. Every thought ends in 'it should have been me', and despite her feeling toward the woman, she wishes it all the same. _It should have been me a long time ago._

Comforting Kagome has gotten her nowhere but down, and so now she sits close to the monk for some closure of her own. Close enough to express interest, but far enough away to let him know that it will never work. Nothing ever does seem to work, now does it?

No, not really. That's why it's okay when perverts fake a yawn and wrap arms around your shoulder. Because that not really what he's doing. Sango doesn't know what he's really doing, but then again, she doesn't understand what anybody else is doing either, so it's okay. It's alright for them to sit together, but not really, and share this one moment of concern for their friend.

Everyone avoids looking in that part of camp for the remainder of the night, where nothing happens and everyone's got it all wrong.

Inuyasha's convinced that Kagome has got it all wrong, but this time he isn't sure how. Doesn't understand that when you comfort someone there's a difference between empathy and concerned (or in his case, rather rude) words. She's upset, and that's something he can understand ("Most Definitely!" cry all of the trees within a hundred yard radius), but he just doesn't quite get _it._

How this is and isn't his fault. How it is and isn't her fault. Or anyone else's. It's just fault; guilt plain as day for all to see. Flustered, and not quite sure what he's supposed to do about it ( _why do I always have to do this?) _, he thinks that the best thing for himself to do is what got them into this mess in the first place.

"Don't worry Kagome, I'll protect you no matter what," and so it's quite a shock to see that she's (not) crying a little harder now, and to pretend that maybe those weren't the best words for the job right now. He's said he'd protect _her_ and look how well that turned out.

Okay, at least she didn't die, but she broke, and that's what it looks like the woman is front of him has been doing since then. Breaking a little more because she's weak and will never amount to anything, and that is something her friends will fail to understand. That something will always be her fault.

Kikyo has died and it is all her fault, because she is weak and Inuyasha is now offering her exactly what she doesn't want. She doesn't want to be something that needs to be protected. she doesn't want it to be her fault. _( Why can't I ever do anything right?)_

So everything is perfect amongst the Inutachi except it isn't. Not really.

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Reviews are welcome!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:: I have no clue why I wrote this the way I did. It just came out that way. However, since this story is an Angst, I guess it works, right?

Enjoy the Story

Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Two:: Wishes

..~..

Sometimes, Kagome wishes she were stronger.

She imagines this while Kaede sends her off to fetch herbs in a nearby field in response to her sudden urge to train. The girl hopes that maybe one day the people who place so much faith in her (nonexistent) abilities will have a reason to. She wants to be dependable.

According to Kaede, what she needs is to clear her mind, and so she sits with a wicker basket between her feet, staring hopelessly at a sea of plant-life. As if in the back of her mind, little voices don't whisper (_If you had only been stronger)_to her while she steals from the earth in broad daylight. The medicinal necessities have become as common to her as breathing, and so this exercise in relaxation does her no good. ( She's already done, and heading back. "That was fast," Kaede tells her offhandedly later on.)

These herbs heal what she could have prevented if only she had known what she was doing.

Kaede assures her that she means so very much to Inuyasha, as if that makes the guilt go away. (That takes care of the competition however, now doesn't it?) All she has to do is believe in him, as if all of a sudden that's useful. Faith doesn't come to the rescue when strange demons come from nowhere and kidnap you. Believing in your hero doesn't make him show up any sooner, and suddenly he's too late this time, and you realize that's no knight; it's just Inuyasha.

The pieces fall into place carefully as her allusions fall away. Before her stands a man, dogged by time and circumstance, and she wonders just what exactly about him was so special after all. He's not invincible, and just how near to human he really is slaps her across the face harshly. Reality hurts, and she's not sure if she likes it.

Speaking of hanyous, there he comes with a nice pile of fuel for the fire slung casually over his shoulder. A very accurate sixth sense alerts him to her staring.

"What?" and she see just how defensive he really is. How did she ever expect to break through all of _that_?

"I want to become stronger," and she's not exactly sure why she told him but she's glad she did all the same. It's out there now, in the space between. It's definite.

"You're just some stupid mortal wench," he snaps without thinking, and it shows on his face how he really didn't mean it, but that's all a moot point now. She's not sad, but very angry that once again, nobody understands.

"But you're half human. Does that mean that you're only half strong, hotshot?" Oh. She's hit a sore nerve, now has she? She's forgotten about her tentative confession and is fully engaging in something both stupid and pointless. They both know this; know that this means nothing, but it means _everything_.

"You sound just like that damn brother of mine!"

"Hmm, ever think he had a point?"

" You're being a stupid bitch right now."

".........says the person who needs a piece of jewelry to prove that he's really strong." She shouts, and this time it does matter. She knows by the way his eyebrow twitches, and his mouth curls downward that this time she's gone too far. Ready to apologize, and anger subsiding immediately, she waits for his outburst.

His silence has never been so scalding.

"You want to act like that motherfucker, then you better go him. I don't want you anywhere around me." Quiet, hurt and dripping with anger. Each word is a tiny dagger to her heart because she understands all too well why he hides behind so many masks. This hurts, and she was the one who did it.

Words fail her.

" Inuyasha I-I'm so-"

But this cannot be this time. Too many years of being antagonized ( "You'll never amount to anything!"), and the stake was finally driven home. "You've got 'till I count to five to get out of my sight or so help me god, Kagome!"

His conviction wavers only slightly when she starts to cry in shock (_ did he just threaten me?), _but he's never goes back on anything. It's too late to go back now. What's done is done.

"I'm sor-"

"One."

"Please understand that-"

"Two"

"-I wasn't serious ab-"

"Three."

" I'm just upset and si-"

"of being weak all the time. I-"

"Four."

"I don't want to be weak anymore!"

"Five."

Eyes that show no emotion tell her that yes, he is serious, and legs with a mind of their own run out of the hut, out of the village, and golden eyes watch her flight. Inuyasha watches her until he can see her no longer, wanting to run after her except for the shackle around his ankle called pride. It won't let him do it. So instead, he bangs his closed fist against the wall of the hut in frustration because damn-it! it wasn't supposed to end like this.

"What have you done?" cries Sango when the teenager is not in sight but a large whole in the wall is. They all know what that means, and are similiar parts displeased and worried, and tired of it all. ( Can't we all just get along? ( But nothing is ever that simple.)) _Can't we all just stop fighting and start listening?_ Please?

But the damage has been done.

And,"Inuyasha, you've really done it now." Miroku sighs, rubbing his temple to fight off the onslaught of what might just be an incoming migrain. He can't handle this right now and it shows in the way he just gives Inuayasha a look (Really now?) and ventures far away into the hut. Today is not his day because this is more than he can handle right now. Monk or not, a funeral service for someone he really felt impartial (agitated) towards really takes it out of a guy and right now, there's nothing left to give.

For today, Miroku is done and maybe in the morning he won't be.

Shippou does what all of them really want to do (call the inuyoukai an idiot and shout his head off) , and they are thankful. It feels as if a weight is lifted off of their shoulders as they finally say what really needed to be said. "Inuyasha, why can't you ever put yourself in her shoes! Imagine how she must feel right now."

In this moment, Inuyasha just cleches his hands into fist and looks away angrily, teeth gnashing. Sympathy alone won't soothe the sting of her words, but it would be an even bigger burn if he told anyone. Let them assume once again that he is in the wrong. See if he cares. (Liar)

Sango is sitting looking as if someone has punched her in the gut, but is only just realizing it. Her eyes are round, and her mouth does a little 'o' before she suddenly smiles, and focuses her tender gaze elsewhere. Golden eyes follow her gaze, which rests on the distraught kitsune, who has snuggled his way into Kirara's warm hide and cried himself to sleep. For a moment when their eyes meet, he feels guilty before she shrugs at him much to her own chagrin.

"It's not alright, but it will be." She says to him before lowering her gaze to the resting boy. "Once we have our Hope back," she assures herself silently ( Inuyasha hears her all the same.)_  
_

And for the moment, Inuyasha has no choice but to agree. Because without 'hope', they have nothing. _Please come back._

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Reviews are welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:: I hope that no one is thoroughly confused. I think that so far, everything makes alot of sense. I just hope that you readers will agree.

Enjoy the story.

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Three:: Decisions

..~..

Right now, she has no idea where she is.

She won't admit that to herself, however and so hours later she finds herself traveling a lone pathway around dusk, shivering slightly. Threats on your life make it hard to think about practical things like jackets for cold weather, and it only occurs to her now that it's the middle of autumn.

The priestess in training has no idea what she's doing out here, only that it's cold and she really doesn't want to be outside anymore (_I don't really have a choice, now do I_?). She also wants something to eat. She has almost forgotten how useless she truly is without her friends. There are no demons with a super sensitive noses to hunt down small game for a quick meal. There is no conniving monk around to swindle a decent inn room out of a couple of superstitious old coots. No Shippou who starts a fire with a few words and exaggerated hand motions.

More importantly, as her feet are quick to remind her, there is no Inuyasha to carry her around when she doesn't feel like it. Never before in her life does she wish that maybe she should have joined the track team in elementary school instead of volleyball. That sure would have helped her now, seeing as how she can't see a way to spike herself to the nearest village. Not even if she applies herself which, (to the disappointment of many of her teachers) she never really has.

Around the bend comes the rhythmic clack of horses' hooves, and she feels as if she is saved. Maybe the kind merchant will let her hitch a ride. With luck, he'll be kind enough to let her stay the night and with a full stomach and a good night's sleep she'll be able to gather her thoughts an decide her next move. She moves to he side of the road to avoid being run over and prepares her most charming smile (_I'm no Miroku_).

The wagon came to an abrupt stop, and so did she.

A fat, almost comical looking man with beady pig eyes rides up, spilling over the seat, and over flowing from the folds of his haori. Kagome is amazed that one person could be so (too much, too much!), and tries not to stare. Pretend that she doesn't notice the way he gazes even at her like she's a slab of meat on clearance day. It's hard to be charming under such (perverted) intense scrutinization.

"Why are you out here, girl?" comes the raspy, wheezy voice, and the man pants a little at this difficult feat. His rolls of fat flap around uncontrollably as a coughing fit suddenly seizes him. Abruptly his little eyes refocus on you, and with a start she realizes that she's been staring, and expertly looks away.

"Um, I- i was separated from the group I was traveling with. I'm exactly sure where I am right now." Slight perturbed by his gaze, she plays nervously with the hem of her shirt and shuffles around quietly.

After a noted pause he responds, "So, you have no lodgings for the night?"

"No." here she attempts to use that charming smile people have always said she possessed.

"Any money?" Literally, she hears the gears behind in his head start to turn, and she has a bad idea about this after all. But it's it's her only option. This man is all she's got: take it or leave it.

"No," and she is embarrassed because she has forgotten that money is the real negotiator in any situation. Another long pause, where she feels like she is being sized up before:

"Are you willing to work for your stay?"

She responds to quickly to let the implication of what that might mean sink in. "Absolutely," and flashes him what she hopes are pearly white teeth.

He makes a clicking noise in response, and has another coughing fit that results in the upchucking of some disgusting looking substance. She waits while he fishes around in the folds if his shirt for a hankerchief before making a show of wiping the gunk from his chin(s). Dozing slightly, she jolts to a start when he speaks next.

"Get in the cart." A complete change in character from a sloppy lecherous man, to someone in control. _(At least someone knows what they're doing.)_

She is quick to oblige because he already has this impatient look on his face like he would leave if she moves a second too slow. As she climbs aboard the wagon, hungry eyes eat up the expanse of exposed skin, and she shivers a little bit more. Kagome sits as far away from the man as possible with out falling from the wagon.

He nods, a quick jerk of the head that shakes his jowls furiously, before whipping the reins. The horse spurs into motion, and the jerky motions of the cart keep the teen from going to sleep near the sketchy man. After undergoing an expectant kind of silence he speaks again in that raspy voice of his.

"My name is Takamura Wataru. For the next three days you will be working for me."

She nods tiredly, and they arrive at what appears to be a decent enough inn. She is given a futon and a sparse blanket then directed by a sallow faced woman to a bare room with a bit of a draft. Still despite her not so pleasing accommodations, she falls asleep fairly quickly all the same.

* * *

"What do you mean the well is closed?" It's so hard a concept to understand that Sango must repeat it a third time before she gets a response from the tense Inuyoukai. Two days without Kagome has done them all no good, and all of their efforts to goad Inuyasha into apologizing to her have turned against them.

"She's is still here." At least, that's what Inuyasha tells them before moodily storming off in search of his favorite tree. How was it that words could cut him more deeply than any arrow ever could? He ponders this as he crosses his arms and goes off to sulk. "Goddamnit."

"Don't sit up there, we have to go find her!" Miroku agrees with her, and Shippou looks like that's the best thing he's heard in a really long time. But Inuyasha won't budge, and even if they want to go, they can't. They're a team. (We leave no man behind, no matter how stubborn.)

"Are you really going to let her be out here all alone?" Miroku snaps surprisingly first on the man nursing his smarting ego. " You know what people are like out there Inuyasha. What do you think's going to happen to her without us around to protect her?"

Silence as stony as the night only infuriates the man, which is a very hard thing to do.

"For fuck's sake Inuyasha, she skips around in practically nothing; what the hell do you think is going to happen to her?" In exasperation, he puts a hand to his face and utters a long suffering sigh. The cat's out of the bag now, and if the sniffles from behind him are any indication it's the one thing they had been dreading the most. "She's going to be raped, or put in one of the whore houses. You know this, and still you do nothing?"

Emotional blue meet raging gold that turn too quickly away for him to discern anything other than the fact that this man really isn't going to help them. _Okay, fine. Be that way._

Picking up his staff, he gives one more glance over his shoulder as if in disbelief of how much a man's pride can let someone suffer before setting off. The tajiya, is more slow to follow, and so is the kitsune. Kirara is tow, they set off. They break apart.

They are no longer a team.

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Reviews are welcome..


	4. Chapter 4

A/N:: I promise to have regular updates with this story, so you should be happy about that! ( Yea!) Every other Wednesday, baby!

(unless specified :X)

Hope you enjoy the story.

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Four:: Faces

Three days have stretched into a week full of monotonous lying. Kagome is sick of it. (Is this what life really is about?)

Thankfully, 'work' wasn't as sketchy sounding as it seemed. This really is an inn, and she really has to work here. Unfortunately, this is also a tavern and 'work is something that she does wrong; many, many times. She can't pour tea correctly. The scorched laps of many middle aged men can testify to that. She also cannot correctly put on a traditional kimono( what's worn for occasions in her time is now the uniform she wears everyday). An embarrassing slip-up insured that would never happen again, however. (Said slip up brought in alot more customers so Takamura-san didn't mind too much.)

When he does mind, it really is of no consequence. He simply fetches some red faced woman (_Why does everyone here like so winded?) _to show her the correct way to do it, and discretely tacks another day onto her service time. This man can barely form a sentence without wheezing, and so she takes care to decipher his one word responses as carefully as she can without messing up once again. It usually goes something like this:

"Takamura-san, will I be able to leave tomorrow?" she asks pleasantly. Working here is nice enough (when she isn't screwing it up), but that's not why she came _here_. She can't fix her mistakes by spilling tea all over peasants. That just won't do. She's gotten enough rest and time to clear her head that she see just how impractical alot of things really are considering the way she lives her life.

Kagome has inconspicuously bought plain yukatas from street vendors with the change she pockets from her rounds. ( It's not as if it's hurting him any.) No one is any the wiser.

He is a giant blur of motion; always moving at a pace that surprises the girl each time she sees him (defying gravity). He never glances her way; always focused on the papers in his grubby hands, and responds distractedly," Aaa." Then he is gone, taking with him a pungent odor that makes Kagome wrinkle up her nose in disgust.

A customer will catch her attention, and she will forget how he just brushes her questions aside. She will finish her shift, and sigh in relieve at the fact that her burden has been lifted, and right as her head touches the pillow he will appear, "Work harder tomorrow." and goes wheezing down the hall.

And she will cry.

She really is trying to tell him that she's leaving, but he's not listening (nobody ever listens) . _Good people don't just leave; that's be rude_, and Kagome considers herself a good person. So Kagome lies to herself; she'll just tell him tomorrow she'll be on her way, and he'll _understand_. (No he won't)

In this way, seven days become eight, and Kagome has never felt as helpless as she does now. ( She is wrong.)

"Miss!"

Someone has called her and she will hurry to attend to their needs, a smile on her face, and a pep in her step. Just the way it should be. She will wait until day slips away to drop the charade and be the girl who fails to even speak now, much less do. (And so she spends much of the night crying herself into a tormented sleep). At least during her stay here, she has learned when and when not to cry.

And that is useful (increasingly so).

"Yes?" ever polite and chipper; the customer who happens to be another of many middle aged men who frequent the tavern, thinks she's just the best thing since sake. She always has a smile on her face, and looks at you like you mean something. Service is good here, he tell himself. I'll come back tomorrow.

Which is exactly what Kagome wants, but that beside the point.

What she has here is a satisfied customer. That means she can leave now. She is _free_now. Just as she comes back form the kitchen with the man's order of dango and tea, all hell breaks loose in the form of rowdy bandits.

"Alright, where's the money?" the maverick of the group growls, pointing a rusty blade at another server, who cowers away from the question. The scene is so close to being a 'stick up' ( resembles something she is familiar with) that irony is enough to make her laugh for the first time since Kikyou died.

"Just what the do you think is so funny?"

She stops laughing of course. Having the tip of a potential tetanus outbreak pointed at your throat does wonders for sobering up the moment. Every person in the room who thought she was a god send is looking the other way, and she is truly alone. No one's going to help her out of this. How quickly humankind turns on themselves; reverts back to the base instinct of preservation. _(Better her than me)._

The sword moves closer, and Kagome remembers that when asked a question, you're suppose to _speak_."Uh- nothing. Nothing's funny. i - i just-" and she realizes that maybe none of this was funny at all.

The man threatening her life narrows his eyes in warning, and she takes the hint; stops talking. "Where's the money?"

"I don't know." but that's not the answer he wants to hear, and the teen gets a taste of vertigo before her face is acquainted with bamboo floor, and the cold edge of a blade is pressed against her neck,

"Where's the money?" He asks again, and she can imagine the hawk-like man scanning the crowd as if one of them would take his objective from the folds of their haori and toss it to him.

"I don't know," she whines because she really doesn't know. She wonders if this is how her life is going to end as he barks ordes for everyone to get down while his goonies search the place.

It's deathly quiet, and the hushed and panicked breathing of so many (innocent) people pushes down on her, and she feels like she's going to break. Sweat runs down her forehead and hangs in front of her eyes. Her bangs are all sweaty and matted down to her forehead, and all of a sudden there's an intense need to move (simply because right now she can't.)

Loud heavy footsteps creak on wooden floors, and it appears they haven't found the money but the next best thing. They've got Takamura. Even under all of the tears and sweat and grovelling, it is still the man with piggy eyes who saved (took advantage of) her. As they get closer she can make out what he's saying.

"Please, please don't kill me! You want diamond? I have dimaonds- nice, big shiny ones, worth a ryo or two. You want clothes? I have silks- fines and exotic colors, from the mainland! Please, just spare my life, I beg of you! " His voice is a nervous squeak, and when they throw him down in front of her, their eyes meet. She sees his red face, dripping with sweat. His beady eyes darted around nervously; his mouth twisting in anxiously, and thinks of just how uncanny his resemblance to a pig is right now.

_Like a pig about to be slaughtered._

"Where is the money?" the hawk man demands again, refusing to be sidetracked. The blade at her nap is shaking slightly, and she can only guess that he's quickly growing tired of the man's babbling. "I mean it, piggy! Where's the cash?"

"Don't kill me" Wataru shrieks terrified in response before another of his all too common coughing fits seizes him. Without words, his eyes grow wider and Kagome knows what is going to happen next and want to look away but can't. So much happens in slow motion.

One moment he is screaming, and blood is spraying everywhere, and she's screaming and moving. She can't believe that so much blood

can spill from one body, and it sinks in only now that what just happened is that someone has died (and all she did was watch, once again). She wants to be repulsed; she wants to feel something akin to horror and disgust but not knowing if the blood splattered over her torso is her's or the dead man's leaves her with other things to worry about. Her cheek hurts, and when she touches it tentatively, sharp pain forces her to snatch the appendage away. Her whole face is on fire.

Everyone is screaming, and it's chaos. Swords are glinting, and men and women are dying, and blood is going everywhere, and Kagome runs. She trips over the dead, and shakes off the desperate fingers of the dying. Ashamed of her weakness, but not brave enough to go get killed doing something she knows she can't accomplish ( _I can't save these people.)_ she ducks and slips in puddles of blood from so many corpses.

She is yanked viciously to her feet, and a non-descript man with a wicked look in his eye raises his sword, and she raises her arms in a futile attempt to defend herself. The blade descends, stained red with crimson, but her fear moves faster, and with a surprising burst of light, she is released and that man is no more. Her miko powers which she can't control have controlled her fate once again, and she is saved. (Didn't mikos only kill demons?)

The same cannot by said of everyone else, though. Everyone stops to looks at her (_did she really vaporize that man?), _and even this accomplishment is a failure. As she runs away (yet again), she vows that she'll never do anything like that again, because the way they looked her just then................._If someone looks at me that way again I'll just die._

Miroku is worried. That becomes more apparent as minutes pass by and he feels as if every town he reaches is life laughing at his inability to do anything as a man. A man is supposed to prevent these things from happening. He can't even save one girl. ( How can he be trusted with something as important as redeeming his soul?) He can't comfort these people. He does not know the meaning of such things, and in that, he fails as a monk as well.

He gazes at his rosary beads like he'll be able to pull her out of there. ( _At least it'll be good for something then.) _

The words," Don't worry," never pass Sango's lips because, well, then she'd be a hypocrite. She bites softly on her knuckles as she leaves the more diplomatic part of their escapade up to the pensive man. Just how far a scared little girl can run is something you never thought you had to find an answer to, but that just goes to show.

Kirara walks up behind her, and Shippou sits atop the beast, the same lost look haunting his expression as had been for the past seven days. Closer to Kagome than any of them, he disappearance hits him hardest. His face is an open book that Sango desperately wants to close. She doesn't want to read the words ( 'I've lost everything').

She can't deal with that. It's too similiar to what she has yet to cope with (only push aside), and she just _can't_. _Dear God, not again, _and so she ruffles his head affectionately while giving him a luke warm smile.

"One of the vendors here say they saw her traveling west," the monk is excited to be able to say, but worried all the same. Green eyes focus on the man, and for the first time in a while, Shippou is right _here_.

Sango is confused. "The west? As in Sesshomaru of the Western Lands?"_As in Inuyasha's brother? _Her point is noted, but really what choice do they have but to follow?

They mount the nekoyoukai, and away they fly, hoping that wherever they land that they are only too early to prevent the inevitable. And so they lie to themselves with determined smiles on their faces.

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Reviews are welcome.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N:: My sister read this and told me " Wow, Kagome's pathetic-meter just hit a now low.." I guess it has. ;l That also made me realize something; all the stories that i write end up being angst. I wonder if that tell me something about myself..............

Enjoy The Story

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Five :: Deception

"Inuyasha, what are you doing?" is the pointless question that Kaede asks the stubborn man finally as she hobbles at last to the Goshinboku, much to his chagrin. She knows that he can hold a grudge but (to let a girl spend two weeks alone in the fierce country side of feudal Japan) enough is enough. This is no longer anger, this is childishness, and that is something Kaede has never had any tolerance for.

"What does it look like I'm doing, old hag?" he shouts back defensively, folding his arms crossly, and looking down his nose at her from his perch atop the tree. The wind is blowing gently, and it ruffles his hair gently. the sun illuminate his silver locks and for a moment Kaede can understand why demons are the descendants of Gods after all. That's just an ephemeral understanding, and time is very fleeting indeed, so the moment is gone as soon as it comes.

They stand like that for a while longer, looking at each other but not saying anything until she gets her bearings. Clears her throat, and has to remember thrice over what she wanted to say before she speaks. (Old age really sucks)

"Are you not going to look for her at all?" She asks imbiguously. As much as she loves the spunky teen, she has known Inuyasha far longer, and their bonds run deep, far deeper than they really want to look.

"Are you really going to ask me that question?" Evasive is his game, and he runs a clawed hand throug his hair as he settles in for the long haul. Talking circles with this woman will get him nowhere, and that's exactly where he wants to stay. Kaede knows this, and gives up before she even starts.

"Inuyasha." she says tiredly, all of her years starting to catch up to her and piling on her shoulder like snowflakes.

"Old hag," he responds, going tic for tac with her.

She doesn't take the bait, merely is amused. She gives a short, bark-like laugh. "Hardly. Compared to you, I'm in my prime." The silence he bestows upon her only happens to solidify her point. He is far older than she will ever live to be. However, one can only laugh at their mortality for but so long. " Inuyasha, this isn't like you. Stop sulking and go find her."

"I'm not going to help someone who said that I'm weak!" he shouted, before looking away quickly. Embarrassed.

Kaede ignores this. " Did she really? Or is that just what you wanted to hear?" The red tinge to his face darkens a bit on his tan face, and the priestess knows that she is right. This is not about Kagome at all. It's about him (hasn't it always?).

"She doesn't want me to protect here anymore. I'm no good." and he sounds a bit more sheepish about telling her tis, so she takes it quite correctly as being the truth here. However, she can only shake her head at the ignorance of youth and hope she can straighten this out before it goes somewhere she can't see.

"That's not it at all, she loves you."

"So?" he sputters in disbelieve, sounding just like a stubborn child who refuses to believe that brushing his teeth benefits _him_.

"She doesn't want you to protect her. She wants to protect you!" She shouts up their in exasperation, finally getting sick of trying to be subtle. Her back aches from standing here so long, and honestly she has other things to do ( Being the nonofficial head of a village will do that to you.).

"So she does think I'm weak- I don't want her fighting my battles for me like I'm an damn invalid!" he growls angrily, not about to be underestimated. he has played into Kaede's hands.

"How do you think she feels when you always fight her's?" She would stay longer to advice (argue with) Inuyasha, but she has people she needs to check up on, grave sites to attend, and remedies to create. This to do all before her back gives out on her today? Best to get moving. The fact that she leaves Inuyasha no choice other than to be left with her final words and think abouut it only makes the situation that much more amusing to her. _When you get to be this old, everything is funny. _

And so hobbles away the old woman from the God Tree, chuckling slightly with each stiff step.

* * *

For the first time, Kouga is not happy to see her.

"What the hell are you doing running around out her without the mutt?" he demands, grabbing her by the shoulder and studying her face. Looking under all the caked on blood and grime to see that yes, it is Kagome and then scanning the surrounding forest to asserten that, also Inuyasha was no hwere to be seen. No he is not happy to see her. ( He's too angry that someone he hates to see isn't here to be happy.)

"Kouga?" she says incredilously. What are the odds are she would run into him? (With her luck, pretty high actually.)

Thankfully, the decision is taken from her hands as the wolf prince decides that she needs to be looked at, and right now. She wonders if she should tell him that not all of the blood is hers, then thinks better of it. Wouldn't that make him worry even more? She walks (limps) dutifully behind him as he drags her across more of the countryside. They walk in silence long enough for Kagome to be tempted to shout ' Are we there yet?' before he says anything.

"Kagome, what happened to you?" He is completely serious, and when he stops to look at her, she is overwhelmed for a minute by just how blue his eyes are. _Like the skies......._But then again she never really was all that good at poetry, so who's to say? She stops for a moment to think about how exactly to tell him something that she doesn't even have an answer to. _What did happen to me?_

"I don't know." she says warily, because she really has no idea but doesn't think that's the answer he wants to here. It isn't, but this is a man who won't throw her to the ground (something she has to remind herself of when he grabs her and drags her near). Instead, his startling blues eyes are narrowed in concern, resting upon her face. She prays that the sword that nicked her cheek was not tipped with poison because she can no longer feel her face and that is never a good thing. Her legs ache very much, a throbbing, dull pain that can only come from pushing herself to move beyond her limits. She can feel herself right now, rooted in place. Her feet have grown vines and anchored themselves into the rich, dark soil. She can walk no more. _( This is my pathetic limit.) _The teenager awkwardly looks away, ashamed to be silently asking what she has treaded saying in the beginning.

Kouga knows instinctively what she is asking, and picks her up gently, carrying her on his back. She is instantly flooded with a sense of nostalgia that makes her want cry, but somehow tears do not fall. she is thankful for this one reprieve from her weakeness. There is only so much she can handle right now, and trying to numb the pain of body and guilt from leaving so many to be slaughtered is enough. ( Or so she thinks; what an unconvincing liar.)

"I'm a murderer." she whispers heart-brokenly into his back, knowing that he can hear the muffled noises anyway. Doesn't really care at this point. ( She just wants to forget.)

Misunderstaind the whole problem, he grunts sympathetically and continues running through the forest. This causes her to cry a little harder. The all that those people lives amount to is a grunt of sympathy from someone who deosn't even understand the implications of their death is somthing beyond words. She feels as if whatever convictions she had in running away have been all for naught, because in the end she is alive, and (most likely) they are not.

She wants someone to tell her that she's wrong. That's it's not her fault. She wants someoen to tell her what to do. Kouga, she realizes is not that person. He never will be. One who slaughters whole villages for the sport of the kill ( as if she never fit those pieces together) can never truly make such a drastic 180.

He will never look at humans as anything more than a means to an end. Whatever end she is to accomplish in the picture he has of life however, is a mystery. She likes him all the same though. Trusts him ( but not foolishly).

They stay in the kind of silence that she can only attribute to being normal during a trip with the wolf prince. Or, she could just be worried, and somehow the thought warms her heart. She wants to believe that maybe she really can trust him. Maybe he does want to help her.

"Kouga, can you do me a favor?" She states as finally, a familiar waterfall depicts itself in the distance. The man himself does not face her, but his ear twitches, and she's seen that enough times to know that he's listening. That she has his undivided attention.

"Can you train me?" Suddenly she feel extremely lame for asking. The line sounds like it's from one of those cheesy samurai movies, but, this is the real deal. She's in the samurai movie, so it seems to fit the moment and nobody sniggers at the cliche. Except maybe her subconscious.

He barks, the short laugh of someone who has been holding back for too long. "So, you've finally got tired of waiting for the welp?" She flinches, and he feels it (through their contact), but attributes it to her injuries.

His response is candid. Light, and for some reason, she doesn't think that he has taken her seriosuly at all. Tired of being brushed aside like a child (which she wasn't), she made to open her mouth, but they had already entered the cave and the loud and welcoming cheers of the pack overwhelmed her response.

"Kagome!" Hakkaku ( or was it Ginta? she never could tell ......) exclaimed, and suddenly everyone was crowded around her, amazed and concerned and _touching. _Fingers pried her away from Kouga and pulled her toward the back. Hands gently scrubed off layers of dirt and caked on blood until there is skin rubbed raw and healthy and she is slightly unnerved by just how touchy they all really are. ( No concept of personal space.) She discretely shooes them all away to clean herself (by herself).

So of course she flinches as someone with a doughy, homely face comes and dabs at her cheek.

The woman trades looks with a younger girl. Growls softly, the sound surprising Kagome into awareness ( she had zoned out for a moment). The girl, maybe a few years younger than her, says apolegetically, "The wound might be poisoned. We might be able to catch it in time, but seeing as how it is infected, this will be very painful for you."

"It's nothing she won't be able to handle." Ayame calls out from nowhere, kneeling down in front of the raven who is overwhelmed by just how red the teen's hair really is. _Like blood....._

"You'll be fine," she states cheerily enough, "There's just a mild sting. Kai's just a sissy and exaggerates everything." Smiling reassuringly at Kagome as if that was the only thing she had to worry about, the priestess (or so they call her) smiles back. She isn't feeling it however, and it shows, so Ayame slinks away before her feeling are hurt, and Kai comes foreward in a solemn fashion holding a jar of the most foul smelling muck Kagome has ever caught a whiff off.

The scent burries itself deep within her head, and makes her want to retch,but no one else is bothered by it ( or so it seems), so she does not make as much of a fuss as she would like to. Only coughs quietly and waits expectantly. A clawed finger smeares the stuff forcefully onto the wound and Kagome feels that she knows what it's like to die. Her face is on fire, boiling and burning with a pain so intense she feels the need to claw the substance from her face.

They suspect this to be her course of action because at once there are firm and muscled arms, binding her own to her side. ("Calm down, sis.") She wants to spite fire to get away from the pain this little girl is inflicting upon her with such a baleful expression on her face. As she grinds the remedy into the wound, Kagome fights the urge to gag and the fumbles leads to Kai accidently pricking the wounds with her claw. Blood flows up, and the pains renews itself, red hot and hellish.

It is too much for her register the fact that she is convulsing and now five people must restrain her from attacking something. She only knows pain, that all the world has become, and that is the only thought she has before suddenly it is too much. She blacks out.

Ayame promptly smack the wolf prince over the head. "What the hell, Kouga?" She is mad, and rightly so. For a human, that girl can put up quite the fight, and she is now sporting a bruise (a fist to the face) that she can't even retaliate for. Response to violence is second nature, as natural as breathing, and she feels as if she has choked herself. _Stop cheap-tricking me!_

He is equally pissed off, though for different reasons. Worry will eventually turn into anger somewhere down the road, and that ponit is now. He wonders if this is how Inuyasha feels when he yells at him (stupid, incompetent fucker that he may be), and he doesn't like just how guilty he feels about doing it. Being told you've screwed up when you already know it is not a good feeling (quite the opposite really), and walls flare up all around. "Don't blame me!"

"Who then? You go out for and can't even help yourself from kidnapping her, _again_?" She glares at him for a second before peering fretfully( anxiously as her maturnal instincts kick in despite her vehemence) at the prone body of the teen. As if she is seeing her for the first time (since this is technically their second meeeting but Ayame has _heard_ enough about her to fill in all the gaps) . "Aren't I good enough for you? Or perhaps you're into little girls now?"

"It's not like that!" he says, but immediately regrets it because, he can see that questions dancing in her eyes like flames licking his skin (it burns). He has said too much, and can't help but feel as if now is a good time to just give up. Too many words don't come out right and for now he is spent- too focused on _her _to deal with her. (Let's try this again some other time)

She wants to do it now though and pouts like a petulent child. Reactions to news like this should be worry and hope, but all she feels is tired. Tired of this life where she has to fight for everything, and this only seems to be another step in the competition's direction (watch Kouga take tiny steps toward her; watch him leave her behind once again). Suddenly they are no longer in this cave. no longer tittering on the border of safe and the West ( because the west is such a dangerous place for people like her).

They are alone, just the three of them; her, Kouga, and that girl. Standing at a fork in the road, waiting to see which path he would take. She stands patiently on the right fork, but has her eyes lowered and her heart closed. Reality hurts, and she doesn't need to see it to know this to be a fact. (Nothing hurts like losing the only thing you have left in this world that's real). Clinging desperately is just pointless because eventually everything slips through your fingers. _I hate you......................_

But, this isn't about _her_. It's about Kouga. The man who is currently leaning over said prone girl anxiously, his two goons flanking him. This is about the man who she used to go on moonlit swims with as a child when the adults weren't looking ( doing boring inane things like council and territory disputes). The same boy who said he liked her hair and got beat up by her older brother when he wouldn't take it back. (Gave her a saucy wink through a black eye).

She plays with her hair now, absentmindedly and frustrated because he is supposed to be hers, just as he promised when they were young and happy. They are still young, but she is no longer happy, and that makes her so very old. She feels it in her bones, and Ayame really thinks that life is starting to catch up to her. No, so much has happened from then to there (so much), and she knows that she really can't hold him up to a child's promise, because children are just so naive. To hold him to avow he made when the world was young is to hold her to the promise she made her dad that boys were icky and gross.

She has to let go because right now, she is the only one holding on. She doesn't like that, not one little bit, but she will hold her tongue and leave it be for now. Let the pieces fall where they may., because all of a sudden, she just doesn't care anymore. Life is complicated, and she is simple (when hasn't it ever been this way?) and the red-haired woman is at wit's end. White flag raised high, she gives the teen a strange look before walking away. _Touche................_

She sighs, running a hand through her wild mane. "You better not get all of us killed," she mutters to herself, before going off in search of her father. It seems that they now have an unexpected guest, and whil propriety is propiety (when has she ever had any of that), right now she just really needs to get away from _her_.

No matter how you look at it, Kagome is human and she is not. _Fucking unfair......................  
_

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Am I doing a good job so far? Review or I'll cry (..........or worry)


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Alright, I know there are some questions I haven't answered in the story yet. I've done that on purpose. Also, for those of you who were reading Intolerable Curse, look who's back in the story with a better explanation!

Enjoy the Story!

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Six:: Smiles

..~..

Aisa is the first to notice the travelers.

She is picking flowers on the outskirts of town. She figures that at the very least it is something to take her mind off of things and at most, it will be something to decorate the graves of the dead (who have just recently acquired this status).

At first, they are a speck on the horizon, and after she rubs her eyes tiredly, they have become a large blob. Alarmed (and just a bit curious), her immediate decision is to inform the villagers of possible trouble ahead.

"Demon! Demon afoot!" and she pauses mid-run, watching as one of the workers from the fields runs past her into town. Beating her to the chase. _You just had to steal my thunder, didn't you? _

She slinks into the quickly growing crowd as the man quickly tell everyone that people are approaching, from the sky no less, and fast. This all just seems to be happening too soon. It seems as if the gods have decided to barrage them with one obstacle after another. Though that doesn't faze the villagers. After all, she is the one who is supposed to save them. They really don't care how the means justifies the ends. As long as they are alive and kicking.

That's why when spiteful elbows jab painfully into her sides as they move past, she merely smiles mirthlessly. A job bestowed upon an unwilling employee does not often yeild good profit. This shows so horribly true right now. However, she did the best she could with what they gave her ( absolutely nothing), and for a while, it was good.

Now it's not.

She, and she alone has now been tasked with the grueling task of digging graves for the dead. Finds it amusing that they would trust her in spite with things they found her inadequate to protect when it counted. Much to her own chagrin, they have gone and proved to her that yes, man is stupid, and no, they weren't going to change any time sooner.

"Healer!" the village head spits out at her, pausing her mid-stride. " Go greet the guests!" He turns away before she can say anything, and disappears inside one of the faceless huts. What sounds like a no-whats-about-it-man is really just another person who begrudgingly once again, depends on a person who does not want to be depended on. _Stop leaning on me, god-damnit!_

A man whom she presumes to be a monk, leaps from atop the furred beast, and runs her way. "Miss, have you perchance seen any travelers pass through here recently?" An innocent enough question, but the harried look in his eye belittles that notion. He's looking specifically for someone, and she doesn't know if she should tell him.

"We get alot of people, passing through these parts," she states rather ambiguously. This is a lie and they both know it. This village was so out of the way from any major routes that they receive very little traffic indeed. However, she felt an intense need to protect whoever was their query. (That beast they rode up on didn't look particularly friendly, and she wasn't that fond of demons to begin with)

"What about a girl with very...........distinct garb?"

She is shocked by just how bluntly he's put it. The surprise shows on her face, and he has an answer even though she never gave it to him. He smiles, (almost smugly if someone asked her). "Has she already passed through here?"

She smiles regretfully. "I'm afraid I do not have the answer. There was a raid, just barely a day ago and the bandit's slew everyone who was in the tavern. There was a woman who was seen fleeing from the village, but there was nothing...........distinct about her yukata."

Her altruism is not welcome news, though appreciated all the same. His thanks sounds like disapproval (why should she have to know who this mysterious person is anyway?) and she inclines her head ever so slightly in response to the man. She watches his every move and, like a hawk does their prey, waits for a chance to spring. Her claws are reaching out............................. "I really do hope you find her, Miroku."

He stops, and she freezes. Moments like this are rare, rare indeed, and so she is slightly amused at how he forcefully continues moving onto he is safely astride the giant cat. ( This gives her times to ask herself , "What the hell?", and come up with no definite answers.) She hasn't done anything like that in a while, and within good reason too. You can't do the work if the gods if you are no longer worthy. ( She's worthy in her heart, but she has often figured out it's never the heart that counts)

Their eyes meet again, and from the corner of her eye she can see the curious gazes of his companions linger. He smiles, and perhaps she is over-taken by the fact that his eyes are just like a midnight sky, but his smile is so charming it couldn't but be real. Years of the hard life have made sure she really isn't that stupid, and so she smiles jovially and watches him once again take off _(_even though his hands fly faster than that beast does- oh _God_....). Thoughts seize her despite how she may not enjoy the course they take, and she goes back to her previous task of picking flowers for the dead.

_He should really learn to smile._

_..~.._

The first thing he noticed was that Kagome wasn't here. _God damnit......_

Spurred on by guilt, and aided by his blood hound tendencies, he quickly caught the teen's scent and was hot on her trail. As he flew through the wild underbrush, he found himself slightly amazed at just how much ground this girl covered. ( _Why couldn't she move like that when they were Shikon Shard Hunting_?) But this train of though only serves to slap him across the face.

Threats do have a way of making one jump do attention. They are very effective in that way. Especially when the come from an enraged Inuyokai with an ego the size of the Nile and growing.

He wants her to come back. He wants to see her face, and he wants to feel warm inside as if he means something. He wants to have purpose. ( Why is my life one big mistake?) A seemingly endless line of failures. Faces that he can't remember, and voices to distant now for him to recognize. One voice he wish he didn't. He's failed her twice, and now it seems that he will undoubtedly fail him again.

No.

Kagome isn't Kikyou. Though the power differentiate between the two has simply fallen down to who is there, and who is not. They are both gone, and to him, that's all in the same. Hands are gripped more tightly together because, man, to think of people in such stark tones is just fucked up. It's only to be expected that he can not comprehend something he cannot understand.

He doesn't understand what it means to be human.

Or to be demon. He only understand himself, and even then, only at half best. For if he truly knew, then he'd know why the hell running after this girl that he loved hurt so damn much in the first place. Why did everything hurt? _Everything I touch ends up in pain................................................._

The forest is quiet in only the way they can be when all you want is something to distract you from yourself before you realize something you don't want to be aware of. He is trying to run away from, in essence, himself, and it's funny how as soon as he realizes this, he's pumping his legs harder. Strange, that.

Shouldn't he be moving in the opposite direction, away from the object of his thoughts? ( No, because that would make me a coward, something I refuse to be (_ever again_) ) An emotion worms it's way into the pit of his stomach, and it feels incredibly uncomfortable. As if something is prickling his sense on purpose, and he doesn't understand what for.

He remembers that he doesn't understand alot of things, but he always tries to do right in the end. A sad melancholy woman comes to mind, and that strange feeling tightens, until he thinks he's going to explode. Fall to pieces, and either by swept away on the wind. Or picked over (by dumb-ass ugly birds).

Nothing happens, and he's drawn back to the present sharply, and quite literally. An arrow has found residence in her shoulder, and he stares down at it dumbfoundedly for a moment as he sorts out past from present. This event has become quite symbolic, and so it blade doesn't piece is body, so much as his mind. Another mental scar is added to the man, and the blonde who shot him seems almost guilty at just how easily he cripples under it's weight.

" Stand back, or I will take you down." she states regretfully, something that doesn't bode well with the hanyou at all.

"Who the hell are you?" he retorts angrily, straightening up in defense. He won't give her another reason to underestimate him, and he refused to look at her until she stopped sending those damned pitiable expression his way. they stood in silence for a while longer, while she studies him intently until he is completely fed up. _Don't pussy- foot me._

"What's the deal wench? You gonna shoot me or what?" his fingers itch toward the hilt of his sword, but he stops in confusion as her expression softens further,

"Come with me, Inuyasha."

Eyebrows arch high and far away into silver fringe. this day has become already just one big headache without a cause. (Is any of this shit worth it?) He doesn't know, but grumbling and cursing the whole way, he follows the woman wherever it is she is taking him. He figures that knowing his name earns her sometime. some, but not much.

"Oye, you seen a wench named Kagome run through here?" He demands, stopping suddenly once he sees he's being led back to some ramshackle village. He can smell the blood from here, and the scent of rotting flesh, and he won't go any further without some answers. He'd be crazy if he did, and that would really tell him that he's learned nothing from all of this. ( How is this a learning experience?)

She stops, and he can smell the hesitation (not literally, no one's nose is _that_good ) even if he can't hear it. "That girl you seek sure seems to be in high demand," she says noncommittally.

Nonchalantly (except for everything about him that screams rage) he slams the woman into the nearest tree, glaring daggers into her amused blue eyes. he doesn't find anything about the situation funny at all, and it pisses him off more. A tiny misconception snaps his last straw, and there's no taping it together. Not today. A man who has run ramped cross country hoping to arrive in the nick of time ( for what, he doesn't want to know) is not one to be tested.

"Don't mess with me!"

She understands that she shouldn't but she does anyway. It is too much for her to resist taunting him on. The evil in her heart that she keeps trying to quell betrays her. " I know not where else she may be, but she is not here."

Her life always has and will be, meaningless, so it is only with disattached interest that she is flung callously away. There is a silence in which he tries to calm himself down enough to not want to punch the next thing that looked at him, and she wondered if she should thank him for his jaded snese of mercy. Life saved or not, her back hurt horribly.

"Aisa, what are you doing? Kill him before he attacks us!" and then she remembers just why life is so piteous in the first place. men as ignorant as the village head should just keel over and save everyone else from their stupidity. People like him are the reason she is forced into a life of grudging servitude in the first place. _I hate you._

The demon has tensed up, ears swiveling and prepares to fight but there is no need. " I will not draw a weapon against this man," she asserts firmly, looking the sallow faced man in the eye. there was a brief showdown, before he looked away, embarrassed and upset. She will pay for undermining him (once again), but there is a reason that she is the one people run to in times of need, and he's not. Having the power to back up your big talk actually means something. _Ha, go figure!_

She has decided standing get them nowhere, but the hanyou has wisely chosen this moment to realize not budging yields you answers, which he wants ( right now).

"Look bitch, if you don''t know where she is, say so now." The idle threat, she realizes turning to him with her face caught in the comical expression of being amused and being annoyed. Much to her own chagrin, she finds herself being stared down in such a way that there is no doubt that this youth will take her down ( or die trying. She is not a vain woman; merely has confidence in her abilities).

"Are you hungry?" she calls over her shoulder instead, walking serenely foreward as if there isn't a smouldering demon standing behind her shocked at her disregard of his presence. She wonders if she should tell him no one with a lick of sense will ever take him seriously with those warm and inviting eyes. People with eyes like that don't attack people like her ( or so she asserts quietly with him following behind like a scolded child).

Of course, it is only once dinner has already been served ( which Inuyasha had to go catch), and she has lain down for the night does he realized that somehow she has avoided his question all so he sits well into the night stewing, simmering. Nursing a flame inside that invokes the fires of mankind to erupt down onto them tonight,

_Sneaky little wench.  
_

A proud author is not afraid to beg. Please REVIEW!

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	7. Chapter 7

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A/N:: Please don't kill me! I know I suck at fight scenes!

Enjoy the story!

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Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Seven:: Pain

..~..

She wanted to die.

She wanted to curl up in a ball, and rock herself into oblivion. Her legs ached, and refused to move. Her arms hung useless at her sides. Her face still burned ( she thought distantly of some words that might better describe the sensation but remembered that she was a good girl and cursed herself for it)

"Come on, you can do it!"

She glowered at the wolf youkai running circles around her. Having what is essentially the feudal era's version of steroids crammed into your legs does wonders in helping you to encourage the sweltering teen to keep running. Said teen knows a place where he can shove all of that enthusiasm and is just about to tell him when some wolf youkai with an impressive scar running down his face steps up to Kouga.

"We took care of the village." he reports just a little too loudly (or maybe that was intentionally as he flashes her a cheeky grin; all fangs......). Kagome shivers a little as she takes this moments to catch her breathe and try not to stop dead on the spot. She wouldn't put it past him or any of the other tribe members to have just eaten the corpses at the village she had escaped from. ( She had caught one of them hauling in an animal carcass earlier that held quite the uncanny resemblance to Souta......). However, her morbid thoughts are corrected.

"They didn't really want us there to check it out, but well," here he puff out his chest in faux bravado, " we made sure to do everything within our power to _help."_ The sarcasm didn't go unnoticed by the priestess who was now glaring at the demon with unveiled suspicion.

"That is, until some bitch came from nowhere and kept shooting arrows our way. The boys high-tailed it out of there, so I had no choice but to follow them." Here she rolled her eyes, and focused on regulating her breathing. He probably ran his with his tail between his legs. Some brave ookami he was. _( When did i become so judgemental?)_

Kouga nods good naturedly, and Kagome thinks for maybe just the first time that this man is too trusting. ( That was the most obvious lie I've ever heard) Or, perhaps, he is simply playing along? Some people were better actors than others. All Kagome knew was that she was not one of those people. Someone is grabbing her and she realizes with a jolt that the hand on her shoulder belongs to Kouga. _( Adrenaline sucks)_

"So, are you ready for another run yet?"

She glowered at him. "Another? I barely finished the first one. I can't walk, let alone run!" She was shrieking by the time she finished her sentence, and Kouga knew that he was in for one her famous temper tantrums that Inuyasha had warned him about.( When they aren't trying to rip out each other's throats and Miroku has generously shared his sake, it turns out that they get along very well.)

She ran a hand through her hair, her palm grazing her face and she flinches. The wound ( which to her immense displeasure will soon turn into a giant scar) is still very tender, and that was a fact she wishes she had remembered ahead of time. Tears spring to her eyes but she refuses to let them fall. Instead, she fists her hands and tries to will the stinging pain away. It doesn't work.

"Damnit!"

Kouga looks to her sharply as she claps hands over her mouth ( not learning from her mistakes and injuring herself once more while doing so), but didn't say anything. the twinkle in his eye belied his amusement however, and a rapid blush spread over her face as he tried to control his laughter. She looked so guilty about it too............

The frivolity of it all catches up to Kouga, and he realizes that yes, he really is getting older. Laughing at how bitter the world really can be, and what it does to girls like Kagome isn't really satisfying, but it fills the void that is his heart. She laughs along, with him, the kind of giggle where you don't know why you're laughing but it's contagious enough that it doesn't matter. _Yes, because life is such a contagious, vicious circle_, and he gives her a crooked smile because of it.

"I wanna practice my archery now!" she pouts innocently enough as if that's the only thing she has to worry about right now. ( Baby steps) He is shaken by the feeling that somehow this is how everyone should feel, and is jaded because he can smile, but he can't _feel_ it. (When did I become so heartless?) There are somethings a demon will never be able to understand, and one of them is how she can obviously place so much trust in him. God knows, how many people ( human and otherwise) he's stabbed in the back to get to a moment where someone is intentionally showing him vulnerability he would have exploited a long time ago.

Doing so to this girl however makes him feel disgusted with himself (_I can't believe I even tried_.), and he wonders when he become so soft. He isn't squishy so much as he's fallen hard (gone splat!) , and not conspicuously for a raven who is more than he deserves. She's pure and light and he feels that he shouldn't taint her with his dark and twisted heart. Players will play however, and he can't help offering it to her at every interval. _Old habits die hard._

"Alrightey Cupid, fire at will," and he smirks at how visibly against hurting him she really is. It touches him somewhere deep inside that she'd never screw him over, but he cannot say the same and so he steps back discretely when she steps foreward (_you are too close, and I am too corrupt. Stay back, stay back, stay back....) _Raising his arms as if to say' go ahead' he gently goads her into picking up her quiver, and smirks at the frown that mars her face more than the (cute) scar running across it.

She takes aim, and he takes a runner's stance because practice or not, he refuses to be a sitting target, and waits. There is the twang of an arrow being released. There is that moment where her face drains of all it's color because the weapon is approaching and he still hasn't moved, but showing off is all so gratifying and he won't budge from this spot until the very last moment. He tense, prepares to take off now, but is caught by time and obtrusion.

There isn't pain so much as there is a lack of feeling, and he himself isn't surprised. In a detached way he notes that yes, a moment ago he could not see into his gullet and now he can. The skin has pulled away in disgust from the wound and he can see the muscles and the tissues - his life force- knitting itself back together like some invisible maiden flaxing at the loom. Each beat of the heart pumps more blood useless to severed veins and the precious liquid flows free and unhindered.

He is afraid for Kagome's sake, as she is quickly turning pale, and this is one of those times when he remembers that humans aren't used to seeing each other skewered on tentacles. _It's not as bad as it looks._

"Kagome, run!" Because even though he feels that he could take Naraku down right here, right now ( even with a hole in his gut), it'd be better if innocent little girls didn't have to watch. Removing the appendage precisely ( which is not usually his style but can be blamed upon his concern for the girl in front of him), he stretches his legs like a runner at the starting line before he shoots off.

Of course, Kagome does not run, nor does she move from the spot she was standing in when he was impaled. Fear has a way of nullifying any actions that it wishes to void, and she is merely a sitting target that is batted aside carelessly, flung through the air and tossed to the ground like a battered doll. Crying out is unnecessry ( _but darnit that hurts_!), and just a tad too determinedly for someone who has no idea what they are doing, she hurries to collect her bow and arrow to take aim.....

Which proves to be somewhat difficult to obtain as Kouga launches himself like a kamikaze to his doom at Naraku, first here, now there. Watching him fight is both encouraging and somewhat dizzying, so she stops watching long enough to wonder just how he's fighting so aggressively with a hole through his gut. ( What hole? A toned, and tan stomach contorts with malicious intent and she notes absently that Kouga really _isn't _human.)

He places well aimed kicks to arms that shouldn't be able to bend that far back and still be usable. She can't help but feel amazed by the ferocity of his blows, and how instead of acquiescing to the, the dreaded spider merely chuckles, backs up a couple yards, and lets his hoard of demons fly looses from the fold on his baboon pelt. These apparitions are merely fodder for years of experiencing crushing skulls in one blow and seeing how many youkai he can step across before one of them doesn't appreciate being used as a treadmill.

He ducks and spins, moving like a dwindling dradle and becomes a whirl wind of fangs, claws and animosity. He is so deadly that she can hardly believe mere moments ago this was the same man who gave her a cheeky grin and was helping her build up her stamina with encouraging (annoying) words. There is a break in the swarm and, he takes advantage of it, and for his efforts succeeds in delivering a brutal uppercut into the hanyou's face.

Naraku's head snaps back viciously and Kagome feels like cheering if she weren't so disgusted by how barbaric this all seems. It's not the same as when Inuyasha slashes his swords through a wave of ogres and with blinding lights and sounds, they are expelledfrom existence. Kagome has never had to think about what happened to them, merely that they are gone and she will live to see another moment.

She can't help but think about this. Kouga is adept with his fists and they glitter red like rubies with the blood of his foes before bashing in another creature's gut. They crash, and they fall hard to the ground, skidding harmlessly all about her where they stare balefully with beady eyes. She's never had to face this. Never had to watch someone die. The overwhelming feeling of the dead and soon to be all around here starts to press in, and now it's too hard to breathe and once again she is panicking. She freezes in a place of terror at just how wrong all of this really is, and she just wants to go somewhere that isn't here.

That would be running away though, which her legs refuse to let her do. So instead, she just stares helplessly at the ookami who is saving her yet at the same time torturing her so painfully. _stop,stop, make it all go away!_

Feeling eyes following his movements, he turns around long enough to see Kagome standing exactly where he told her not to be. "Damnit bitch, run or die!" Secretly, he's amused by just how offended she looks from this distance ( people tend to looks like ants when you're hundreds of miles up in the sky). Distractions like this in battle means a slap to the face, and when you're flying through the air, that is never a good thing.

Quickly trying to land on his feet (because unlike pissy cat demons, he has to work to get this good), he turns around to catch a swift punch to the jaw that sends him reeling. He gets up fast, but the wound to his pride already stings. _Mother fucker................_

Skin meets ground in a scorching kiss, rubs nerve senses raw, and he bites back a scream of pain and instead just opts to curse very profoundly as he stand, winded and sore but not injured ( you can't hurt what you can't touch), and he is off again, like the wind, sailing across the expanse to plow right into that damned superior smirk.

Apparently, the demon has decided he's sent enough useless spawn to their deaths because as the wolf demon approaches, he makes no move to pull out his trump yet again. This is fine with the Kouga. The less targets, the faster it becomes to take them out. Singular are his goals and how they have coalesced into a single though of pain and death for the man before him.

This uppercut, is for the faceless many. This side sweep is for the fallen comrades. This roundhouse is for all of the members of his wolf pack that are no longer breathing because bastards will be bastards and the naive can walk right into traps without ever noticing a thing. It eludes him everytime, the final end, as the cock-sure baboon always pulls away at the last possible moment, and throws in an insult for good measure.

He sees less and less of his surrounding (which is the first thing he learnt the hard way NEVER to do), and more and more of the past; he's submersed in it really, and the only person whose stuck there with him is standing a few yards away chuckling at how easy it is to get the weak to play right into his hands. The red haze of anger and bloodlust settles over his eyes and he lashes out blindly, with no aim, just target that slips his grasp every time and increases his rage tenfold.

White hot like a boiling sickness, it bubbles up from inside of himself, scorches his tongue as it begs to be released. He growls, howls like the creature that he is and charges, claws at the ready like some rapid animal, that with a bone-crunching back slap Naraku puts out of its' misery. He claws futilely at the air, hissing and writhing and wondering why the sky isn't where it should be, and where he cannot see the hanyou anymore. Red breed a veil that cloaks from us everything we want, his vociferous assertion of vengeance is no exception to this rule.

"Done already?" Naraku croons, "I can't believe I came in person for this." He looks over the field to see with some form of irritation that the cavalry is finally on the way. That is not in his plans for today and so it is time for him to make a grand finale. Spotting just the girl he is looking for, he plucks her off the ground while the 'help' (since Ginta and Hakkaku are nothing more than cannon fodder in his opinion) twitters around a reluctant hero.

By the time Kouga has pushed his way out the mother hens' lines of vision Kagome is nowhere to be seen, and in frustration he punches both of the brother's furiously before taking off in a swirl of leaves. For the first time in a while, he is thankful that Kagome hasn't yet asked him to give up the jewel shards he possesses. He might just be able to get to her in time.

He feels as if he has disappointed the world somehow, but as to how he is not sure. ( The world can go stick it where the sun don't shine!) The world was him and her, and for a moment, he felt like he could be somebody. not just a bargaining chip for his father to gain some powers in the west. Not just a stepping stone for Ayame to sleep her way into the lap of luxury. He wanted to make a name for himself, look back at the end of day, and say ,"I've done something with my life."

Or, at least that's what he's been trying to do recently. God knows how many years of his life he's already spent being stupid and trying to run away from things that he only now realizes won't change unless he faces them head on. Living thrice as long as a mortal does means he was stupid thrice as long, and he can't help but feel that he has wasted something very precious and fragile. (Apparently longer life, does not automatically equal greater wisdom.)

There is nothing he can do about it though but hope that he can redeem himself now. Not for himself ( _it's too late for me_), but for _her_. He wants to be able to smile with her, and laugh with her. He wants her to be happy. (He wants to save her from the creepy bastard who just kidnapped her)

But most of all, he wants to make sure that she never, ever has to face the cold,hard reality that is life. Imagining what that would do to so delicate a creature.......(he shudders as he springs branch to branch- like a kid in a maze he's built)

Even he is not that cruel.

* * *

Reviews are welcome.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer:: I do not own Inuyasha, or related aphelia. I only have Aisa and my computer so you no sue me, kay?

Other Disclaimer:: I do not own the song. That honor belongs to Eugene Field

A/N:: Someone told me before that no matter how serious the scene I'm writing, my morbid sense off humour will have them laughing through the whole thing. I have to wonder if that's a good thing or not...............

Enjoy the story.

* * *

Fatal Flaw

Entendre Euphenist

Chapter Eight:: Moments

Shippou is aware of more than they think. As they once again send reassuring smiles his way tentatively (as if not sure how to do it), he has come to the realization that enough is enough. Sorrow is sorrow, but ambling aimlessly brings them no closer to Kagome than to anything else except for destruction. Miroku now lies openly and his faked smiles (you can't hide anything from a _child_) have become painful to watch. It doesn't hurt his eyes to look, but his heart, and so the red haired boy has decided it best to look anywhere but there.

This is not a good decision on his behalf. His thoughtfulness is once again mistaken for depression and now they try even harder to pretend as if Kagome has simply tripped and is right around the bend once more. He wants to tell them to stop lying, to stop trying to cheer him up. It's not working, and it never will. You can't lie to someone who knows the truth. (The truth of coming home to a burning hut, and skinned parents is a truth you can't ignore.)

They are treating him like a child and for once, he is sick of it. He sees now what his father meant by always telling him he was not a child, but a demon. (Wasn't he both?) Children are such innocent creatures, and Shippou has lived through more carnage and disillusionment than he can care to admit. Traveling with them ( all of them, not just these broken souls) always felt like all the pieces that fell down were coming back together, and once again he was whole.

It was fine to be cuddled because it warmed some place in his heart that had long been cold (goodbye family), and he was content with not correcting the mistake they made of how if it looks like a child.........(everyone knows the rest). It wasn't as if he took advantage of the misconception (other than for annoying a certain hanyou whose nose told him one thing but his eyes another and in this way floundered daily).

All the little fox thought of when held snug against a teen that (thought she) knew so much was that this is how it feels to be loved. He liked it. _I don't like this, though._

He is a demon, and he will act his age for once (no matter how tempting the thought is, you really can't be a kid forever). This is fun, but dreams do have to end and he can feel himself waking up. To fight against the pull to consciousness will only turn this into a nightmare, and he's had enough of those to last three lifetimes ( which ironically he has to live through). _Isn't this a nightmare already?_ He takes a deep breath, and lets it out slow before he kills the dream.

"I can track her if you like." and he cowers as they flinch from the sound of a voice they have never heard before. Sure, he looks cute and cuddly, but he doesn't really sound that way. If he did, he'd have never made it this far (far enough to meet people who have for all intents and purposes adopted him) . A little fox magic goes a long way, ( a really long way, if three years can be called that. In the greater spectrum three years can seem like a second, especially to someone like him).

"Shippou?" Sango says in disbelief, frightened because the strange voice is coming from directly behind her, and and she has no way to put distance between herself and this threat. Space is limited on the backs of flying nekoyoukai and she has to make due with craning her neck to look back at the boy who generally is perched on Miroku's shoulders , but now sits solemnly in a shocked monk's lap.

Said monk has now a distinct urge to throw the boy from his lap and watch him fly (_what is that?) _but common sense takes over, and he regains control over his frazzled emotions. Smoothing ruffled feathers ( _I'm a monk damnit! Where's the peace and tranquility?) _he notices only now that there is nothing wrong with the boy. No strange aura, no twitching, no elevated breathing. It's just him (not some psycho spirit) and for some reason he is disappointed. Instead of chucking the boy off and beyond, he tries his best for a level voice: "Shippou, what happened to your voice? Are you alright?"

"Can't we just blame this on puberty?" the boy says nervously, chuckling in a way that no seven year old should be able to do. It is only now that it occurs to Miroku to question just how old the boy really is. (He's a demon,after all) He sounds so _old_ that it's hard to wrap himself around the fact that the speaker is the same boy who cried for an hour when he got a splinter. _It was all just an act._

The ultimate prank by someone who was born to do mischief. He doesn't know whether to applaud or go with his first option ( _I must really want to chuck him since I keep thinking about it.................) _Everyday, he is discovering just how close he is to death, and how far away from accomplishing anything. Naraku has been out of his reach since before he was born. He loses Kagome (though that in part is none his fault; pig headed,silver haired men with an ego the size of Edo take all the credit for that).

Now he feels as though this new side of the fox boy has eluded him too. Like he had a castle full of rubies and pearls only to find out it was just a drunken illusion. It turns out, he never really had anything. (Nothing but a void in his hand which would never be satisfied until he consumed himself). Self-destruction. All he ever does at the end of the day is hurt himself, and in the dusky twilight between today and the next he wonders why he even bothers.

Life is too short, and he is too tired of chasing a wild goose.

(too bad, you're stuck)

and he is. Trapped in a cycle of promises, and obligations and tradition. He didn't want to be the monk (what kind of holy man _kills _and _steals _on a daily basis?) who avenges his tragic life-story. The ironic occupation of his father, and his father's father and beyond is not what he wants for himself. He doesn't even know what he wants for himself, but it isn't that!

Except he must, because Mushin has put up with so much of his bull shit that this is the only way he can ever pay him back. (An eye for an eye, right?) This bitter resentment of the fat man is thick bile, building and rising; disgusting to swallow. He can't believe he'd feel this way about someone who has raised him. He has no idea what to do about it? _What should I do about anything?_

"You can find her?" Sango shoots through his train of thought like a whistle through the fog. There is hope (what was he doing, frowning), and he feels a smile coming on that he wants to wipe off, but it's there; fake and reassuring. Of course he knows what he's going to do. ( "What we're going to do," Sango corrects him a little too quickly for him to play it off as nothing).

He's going to find Kagome. (How could he have ever forgotten?)

..::~::..

She is way too hot.

There is is a difference between warm and scorching, and she thinks that line has been crossed. Skin that ripples like fire across sleep filled eyes are awakened to the sight of fire, the smell of smoke. Her hut is burning (aflame), and she is in it. _Uh-oh_

In her terror, she gasps, and the air burns her tongue (liquid pain), she can feel it in her lungs, charring and choking her from the inside out. Breathing hurts, as if the ribs have punctured her lungs (except the weapon is what she wants more of; air). The air, all turned to carbon now chokes her- now caresses her neck lovingly before wispy fingers take hold of her throat- gently,_gently._ Circulation is cut off-blood; can't flow, and so it surges and pools around the obstruction. It pounds and rushes- she can feel it in her head, as her pulse quickens.

She can't breathe.

She can't move either ( legs like sake splash uselessly to the floor as she titters toward the front of the hut; a drunken blind-man), and coughs in moderation at all the smoke. At all the heat; the flame. At all the fire. Blazing around her, and inside of her (she's afire as well), and she is enchanted by dancing flickering flames.

They lick the edges of her vision, black moths that eat away at everything. So pretty, and she feels as if she can fly......just like them. Light as a feather. Light as the air, and she lifts her arms as a diver does before the plunge before she is tilting, tilting, tilting, and gone.

She flies.

But it is all a lie, and in disappointmeent, she discovers that she does not fly, she leaps. High into the air, far away, held over the shoulder of a man that is a walking sign of ignorance. Except he is not a man (this is not a dream) and the bright star twinkling in the distance isn't beautfiul, it's destruction. A deadly pyre she knows was meant for her, and now only serves the dried out memories of what she once was and how low the mighty have fallen.

She takes in all in (everything), like the first real breathe of air she has ever had, and she is reborn again. Revitalized and aware of so much more than she possibly realized. How could she have ignored all the warning sign? They were obviously going to do something like this- she held no real power against them- without the title she was just _wrong-_ and breathing like this, the air is bitter and salty.

_Am I crying?_

Inuyasha speaks up, and she knows (incredulously, that the answer is yes) this was all meant to happen anyway. "I can't believe it!" he shouts, angry. He has nothing to do with this ( he doesn't know), and yet, he wants to be in it. If only to grab heads and smack sense into the ignorant, so that they can see. ( Look damnit, look at what you've done!) Something bad has occurred, but he feels like it is something more. Fires like that; there is no reason for it. There is no reason for anything at all, and that is why he is trying to find reason within himself. (Reason won't save Kagome)

Save her from what? He doesn't know, but the implications are as infinite as there are stars that mark the passage of their travel. Through the trees. Clenching and unclenching his jaw, he knows not what he's going to do, and realizes just how helpless he really is. How could he have ever protected someone when he doesn't even know where he's going? A jarring thought, which makes him slow down, and belatedly put the woman down. ( _I didn't even notice I was still carrying her_)

"I knew it would happen," she tells him consolingly, to verge away from the fact that she isn't afraid at all, but there is a hole where relief is supposed to be. instead, she is wary of how she knows so much but can say so little. Why have these visions come back, and why her? (_What did I do to deserve this?) _Chuckling softly at that, (what's done is done), she feels no loss, and has nothing to gain. Walking in the inky twilight next the man (who she has continued to follow silently, through the night), she asks an abrupt question.

"How would you like to know your future?"

"Are you finally gonna tell me where Kagome is?" he responds hotly, annoyed by the late hour, the late conversation, and the lateness of it all. _I'm always too late_.

But she does not, instead laughing bitterly, and for a moment in time he stares in abject horror at the blue sheen to her hair, the oceans in her eyes- the tilt, the slant, and the catty air- and he fear for his life, takes a step back and reminds himself to look away from the mirror. (what mirror?) Inuyasha looks very sheepish as he feels her questioning gaze burn a hole into his heart.

"I can help you find her." she says yet again, but Inuyasha has enough sense to see a lie when it's aimed straight at him.

"That's what you said last time, bitch ,and now we're out here playing 'refugee'!"

"Where do you plan to go next?"

He looks at her like she had grown another head and there was a very eccentric girl atop her. Humans sometimes know no bounds, and they- who had no right stuck their nose in the furthest- always forget one pivotal point to the story. Well, amber eye haven't forgotten and don't plan to forget anytime soon. (A whole day, wasted) He gave her his best look of contempt, and looked away. As if scolding a disobedient child.

"Look lady, you ain't coming with me if that's what you're thinking. Don't you have any family back east or something?"

She looks slightly scandalized at the thought of 'back east' and so either this was a secret (she was trying to avoid) or she herself hadn't known. What he doesn't know is that the words have a ring of truth about them, and she suddenly has an urge to run to the nearest river and gave deeply at her moonlit reflection and see who looks back at her. (Who am I?)

The world has frozen over, and she can see years from now, people living for years and moving nowhere, stuck in a cycle of pious ignorance and hate. The greed and desires that burn hot in man's soul, like tiny coals that have cooked for years on their own steam before the magician waves his wand, you expect a diamond, and get more coal.

(Stupid optimist)

A new emotion burns now -softly,softly, gentle, but surely- inside her breast, stirring with the beat of her heart, bursting to life. The beacon, the call is a siren to the inuyoukai beside her, who is surprised and takes a step back, eyes glassy even though he is (not!) crying. The tears don't fall, but his mind goes wild. The sound is so hauntingly familiar, and he wants to make her stop. (Shut up!) He wants to to take his hands and do something, he wants to destroy the sound. (Even though if he killed it out there, it'd still be with him, in his heart- forever).

Instead, he freezes ever so slightly and listens.

An accusing fingers is jammed in her face with the accuracy of an expert marksman and she traces it's path with her hand to her neck. She feels the vibrations, the comforting tremors that accompany each quavering of the lips. She is singing:

..::~::..

_Sleep, little pigeon,_

Her eyes widen substantially as she is tossed to the ground. The ending of their journey means the end of her, but she is not ready yet. _I'm too young to die. _She tries to run (to move) but terror has frozen her in place and she can only watch in horror as her life flashes before her eyes. The present and the past. The 'could-have'beens'. She sees her mother, leaning over her -wafting a warm and welcoming scent and singing her to sleep.

_  
And fold your wings,_

He takes a step closer- his sanguine eyes smouldering and locks onto hers in a way that makes her feel as if he can see into her soul. Conveniently enough, the cave's rough stone walls rush to meet her quickly retreating back, and she has no where else to move but to be draw in closer to the dark abyss that lies behind the baboon pelt. He hasn't moved any closer now- but she feels his presence pressing in from all sides- overwhelming her and drowning her out.

_Little blue pigeon_

Her heart beat loudly in her chest- an pitiful canter that turns into a frenzied gallop beneath her lungs -she can feel it in her throat. The muscles is contracting painfully- her mouth is dry, and she licks her licks nervously- so innocent a gesture that it is as malevolent as sin under his astute gaze. He is watching her like she is about to disappear, unblinkingly and unnervingly.

_With velvet eyes;_

Kagome takes a quiet gasp of air before letting it out in a solicitous exhale. "What do you want, Naraku?" Her words are shaky and as solid as she is courageous ( and at that moment, her stolidness is very laughable indeed- her teeth are chattering so loudly she fears she'll wake the dead!)He tilts his head to the side, his rippling white coat jarred to the left and the snout is wrinkled in such a way that she knows he is amused by her infantile question. Looking at him now, under the guise of the beast, she feels a strange sense of alienation. She is being isolated; summed up and dissected in a silence that lasts forever, and at the point where the suspense is deadly, he speaks at last.

Sleep to the singing

_Of mother-bird swinging_

"I could ask you the same thing." His voice is smooth suede; it's fluid and so liquid that if she hadn't seen with her own hands just how terrible the contents of this book really is, then she couldn't described it as 'suave'. His voice is just another weapon, a lure that is baiting here all too successfully. The minutest twitch of the lips- there and _there_- are the signs of trust heavily misplaced.

_Swinging the nest_

Her hands reach out, find purchase, and she tugs firmly until the deafening _crrk!_of torn fabric fills the void. The pieces fall away, and her heart speeds up again and she find the panic she had previously replaced."Get away from me!" It is amazing how adrenaline helps the reflexes, and the response times- she hadn't even realized she had gotten up, much less _moved_.

_Where her little one lies.  
_  
But he is too close, and too fast, and she sees more than she feels (clammy, cold skin) him reach out, quick as a whip and fling her backward. She careens, vertigo collides her with the hardness, the jutting roughness of the floor (digging into the space between the vertebrae), and she shuts down for a minute while she tries to get her bearings. Her back hurts. _ow......_

Away out yonder I see a star, silvery star with a tinkling song

The rustle of clothes, and the added pressure to her abdomen. The pebbles are really starting to grind into skin now- where hand-made cloth is thin, and the stones are sharp- ,and she hissed simultaneous (in pain) at the contact of hot fingers in contact with her skin. Claws dig into her supple flesh. ( So this is how it's going to end?)

_To the soft dew falling I hear it calling. Calling and tinkling the night along._

He is choking her.

..::~::..

_  
In through the window a moonbeam comes- little gold moonbeam with misty wings;_

It seems like an eternity but really is only minutes ago that the music had started, sputtering like an old projector to life, playing out some old memory; meaningless and at random. Golden eyes have glazed over, hypnotized and the warm feeling that is love -which has lain dormant in his heart for so long- has resurfaced and he feels protected and secure.

A scent drifts to him like loving arms embracing him tenderly and he nuzzles into the softness, into the loves, eyes closed as he mouths syllables to fragile to say aloud. He remembers better days with a woman with black hair and blue eyes and he wants to cling tighter to them- just for a minute.

All silently creeping, it asks; "Is he sleeping? Sleeping and dreaming while mother sings?"

But, his mother is dead, and has been for a while now. His eyes open to blue eyes and onyx locks, but the disappointment is so sharp it is a fresh wound again; gaping and festering-open to the elements. What he thought was happiness is just a miserable attempt at a campfire in the inky blackness of dusk. This woman, she is not his mother. She is not Kagome.(Which would have made this better somehow because at least then, she'd understand.)

_But sleep little pigeon and fold your wings, little blue pigeon with mournful eyes;_

This is just a stranger who evokes strange emotions that he can feels as strongly as his face is wet with something like sadness. He is weak. He is stupid, and he does not understand why now, why after so long a person that he barely knew is so painful to him now.

( ....._Story of my life....)_Tears long dry, and his mask back in place, he thanks the steadiness of his voice as he demands an answer for the many cracks in it. He won't be able to keep up this facade any longer and he want to know why (she is making it harder than it already has to be).

Am I not singing? See, I am swinging-

"Why did you do that?"

But, she is wondering the same thing silently, eyes searching the stars for the words that have condemned her. She has been doing alot of things lately, without reason, without explanation, and she wonders if she can just accept that. (So much pain and anguish over something I never lost?)

"I don't know."Reviews are welcome. I apologize to those who abjure song-fics. Please let this be the exception.

_Swinging the nest  
Where my darling lies._

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

A/N:: Hmm, I've been writing this thing in advance, but now it looks like the story is about to catch up with me............and that is not good. Sorry (hehe..)

Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Fatal Flaw  
Entendre Euphenist  
Chapter Nine:: Meetings

Kagome looks out of the window of the inn, rubbing her throat absent-mindedly. Below, she can see the women of the village carrying in the straw bales and placing them just so (for some sort of aesthetic quality) for seating. Children run between the legs of the old with streamers- a maze of human torsos and walls of idling hands, not too close or you would interfere with the preparations, which is exactly what they are doing, but mothers and grandmothers are too weak willed to say any better- , and the teenagers helped to set up lanterns-string them between the vendors- in and out, up and down, and alive with the sinuous beauty of a snake that's pure and benevolent.

They were setting up for the harvest festival.

The men weren't in town, but they would be. Until then, it was the job of the woman, the eldery, and the young to assemble the convivial atmosphere. In the village square, they had constructed a stage, and she curiously wondered what would go on there. Her eyes strained to catch the tiny flick on the horizon, the movements of nature and man in sync so far away. Plowing and toiling away (muscles rippling, skin stretched taunt and then relaxed, the motions forming a tireless pattern until out from under the brown grainules- peeking it's head out like a mischevous groundhog- the rice, the corn, the plants would appear, only to be plucked by expert hands from the ground like a suckling child from the breast) as she thumbed the strong wood of a hunter's quiver barely a football sized field away.

She had nothing to do at the moment but think, which she did gladly. Letting her mind wonder and her thoughts take her wherever they may desire. Much in the same way she had desired to leave that place (that dark God-awful place where rocks bit into the soft parts between the spine and she was scared for her life; wasted weakness that she couldn't control), and her legs moved ; a God send that steadily but surely propelled her away from the cloud of confusion that arises from a near death experience. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how quickly the town's people had welcomed her in with opened arms and had declared that she would bring in the first kill of the season.

She smiled, an Oliver Twist of a thing, and clucked softly at herself for idling too long doing nothing. (Day dreaming). Hands, slow and steady grasped the fold of her haori and she swiftly tucked the ends into her hakama- pulling snug the fabric belt that held them in place. tucking her hair behind an ear, she slung the bow over her shoulder to join the quiver and moved with a fliud grace she never possessed before in her life.

She felt light, light as a feather, as if nothing could hol her down because she'd only evaporate into noting and float off on the breeze. If this is what Kagura had meant by claiming she was the wind then Kagome could understand why that was so appealing to her. She had never felt this free in her life. This at peace.

The high collar of the priestess garb brushed her hair line gently with each step, tickling the hand imprints that were embedded in the skin. Even though at the moment she couldn't see the claw marks, she knew they were there. The bitter memory of her reflection in the muddy waters of a well bucket was all she has to obsess over it, and she does- the thoughts rising and swelling up inside of her.

For some reason, Naraku did not kill her. He had toyed with her (certainly as she recalled just how friendly and inviting he was; it's hard to recognize friend from foe if they grin at you like that- so _contagiously_), and he had definitely attacked her (little angry finger prints, the exact thickness and wicked intent of a certain spider do not lie.), but he did not kill her.

She wonders why. ( Waking up in an abandoned cave- so dark- and just walking away from it all, unscathed seems like the stuff that impossibility is made of, but she's been there, done that, and even has the welts to prove it.) She thinks about all the reasons why he wouldn't kill her ( she's good, he's evil; the end), and finds that the lines in her mind are beginning to get crossed helter-skelter, and it scares to her to find out just how fast opinions change. (The gray area is widening; she's losing black and white.)

_I could have sworn I hated him but now...........now I'm not so sure._

Now the memories curse her with a strange trick of light; placing a certain glimemr that's undeniably guilt and regret at his actions into the eyes of someone who is only merciless and cold. Red eyes that glint with happiness at the misery of other's do not show remorse- she knows this and yet still feels doubtful about it all. That creature is her enemy and one day she must defeat him, or she will be killed. She has to, or she will never gether all the jewel shards, never end her quest, never be able to go back to leading her quickly crumbling ordinary life.

He is the only obstacle in her path. He seeks what she wants, and will take away the means to her happily-ever- after for his own twisted means if he ever gets a chance. Theses are the fears she lives with every day. That is her reason to fight. ( Who ever wants to die?)

she has to grow stronger so that she can protect and take back all he jewel shard from Naraku so that a wish can be made, and she can go home. It's all that simple. If Naraku gets his hands on the tiny fragments, then it's all over. _Then it's all over..............._

(Why isn't it over now?)

She fingers the vial hanging on a cord around her neck and knows there is so much that she doesn't understand. It's all quite a conumdrum for a girl who not all that long ago believed demon to be mere myths and still feels even at this very moment that all of this is some sick and twisted dream.( A nightmare.) A magic quest, evil oppoments adn perhaps too many readings of Souta's manga when he's not looking have began to take their toll on her- she knew it would happen eventually.

That and what happened to Kouga. Worry manifests images of a a rotting corpse wasting away at some forest's edge and the beginnings of hysterics try to overtake her. _It's not my fault! It's not my fault! It's not my fault!_ (But it is because she was the one who sat and did nothing.)

However, the antics of the good-spirited folk have distracted her from that anguish long enough that she simply has added him to the list of things to be ignored. (Inuyasha and Kikyou are now in good company.) It's touching how many people she (Inuyasha's sword) really has saved while doing seemingly nothing, and she feels as if she has accomplished something. When the sun strikes her face, she feels victorious and refreshed.

The moment passes however,and in the shade she remembers that yet again she has run away and feels so ashamed.

A rather plump woman sidles up to her. " ah, Kagome, (she said the name slowly and deliberately as if not sure she was right), "and blinks slowly, owlishly as if she has woken up from a particularly long nap and is only now snapping to her senses," Are you ready to start the hunt? It's about that time."

It is Kagome's turn to be surprised as she sees indeed that time does fly when you do nothing. The sun is a blazing gold, casting orange rays against her skin -sparking life, and nervousness- she can see it over the horizon. Kagome stopped walking to look the woman dead in the face. A weathered, matronly features stared back at her, small and kind set into a doughy face. Eyes that were so light a grey that they could have been white glanced up briefly in her direction -full of so much admiration and gratitude, someone was thanking _her_?.

A rough hand reached outn to pat her arm reassuringly. "You'll do fine. We all saw the way you took out that bear-demon."

But that was really Inuyasha - all she did was point and scream and so that isn't as encouraging as it is supposed to be.

She smiles gratefully all the same (they did _feed_ her), and readjusts the straps to the quiver for the umpteenth time. The kind of fiddling you do with things that aren't broken you can only do when you've tricked the unsuspecting populace and gotten away with it too.

She's no hero, and here they are treating here like a fuedal version of Fidel. (Bevause she certainly feels like tehy have no idea what they're getting into)

"Is there anything i can do to help out?" she asks timidly.

The woman shakes her head emphatically. "No child! You've done enough! All you need to do is rest, and wait for the hunt." The giant woman ushers Kagome off toward some beaten path like an indulgent grandmother.

"Go! Relax! Unwind!"

Laughing a little at how she is being forced into doing the impossible by this (good natured) old biddy, she does what she is told and wastes more time doing nothing at all. ( Isn't there a magic quest calling your name.......?) All these detours, all these problems, all of everything. Piled up, and standing like a threatening stack of stinky shorts in the laundry room. ( "Mom, do I have to wash this?") Of course she does, it's her responsibility.

(Isn't responsibility for adults?)

Well, that's who she is now, and with great powers comes a shoe she wants to throw at a certain old man for ever saying such a thing. (Take it back!Take it Back! I don't want what you're selling!)

Over the great distance between here and the horizon, she catches the movements- wavering like the dying flames of a candle splay themselves over the sun. A dark shroud of moths, drifting lazily closer until shapes are individual and not just one giant black mass.

The men are arriving back, and it is now time to start the hunt.

_Uh-oh......................_

..::~::..

Their world collide, quite painfully. Limbs thrash at the contact, entangling themselves further, and the constant twitch (the nudging...kicks) sent signals red-hot down up nerves and it registers that the position they are in right now is painful. Of course, the resounding consequence of that fact looks like a game of twisted played by little children - so inflexible, but they keep bending; maybe they'll snap-, and Aisa can't help but find the whole situation quite funny.

"Look bitch, just shut up, will ya?"

The response is quite immediate, how her jaw stiffens, and her shoulder tightens. Inuyasha stomps quite painfully on his pain from their disarray and he knows now that them be fighting words he has uttered. It's all too late when he untangles himself from the mutt (dignity in shredded tatters)

"Of course. I'll just go look for Kagome by myself." The way she saunters offinto the forest could be called sexy, but inuyasha doesn't care. He has only heard redemptions song, and her words are the lyrics. Forgetting Kouga, forgetting himself, he takes her into his arms as he simultaneously reaches the sky.

There is a moment quite like some fairy tale ending where Aisa thinks that she can fly (stupid dreams), and Kouga watches them fade off into the sunset. They blur and seems to fade into the great red, orangey hue, and disapate under the purple rays. Then, they are gone.

Kouga realizes that he has just been standing there, and with a quick curse, to himself, he is gone as well.

..::~::..

When hunting, it is best to be really quiet. Kagome is having trouble with this.

The harsh exhalation of her breathing shakes the leaves of the bush she's behind- creating the other side of the coin to the _dok dok dok_ of her switfly beating heart. In front of her (or, rather, the bush) a deer is poised gracefully. Neck arching foreward to nip a berry from the foliage as she strings the arrow on the quiver.

It stops. There is a dart of the eyes ( Did it hear her?) and her heart quickens. It's so loud by now that she's sure the deer can hear it. Possibly all the other hunters fanned out in the darkness of night can hear the frightened marching drum as well.

If she lets her finger slack, lets the arrow soar, it will all be over. The eyes will flicker, beady and alarmed, tracking the movement at a rate that spindly legs cannot follow- the brain does register the projectile -it's coming in fast- until it is too late to move, to think- and in an instant the deer will freeze up upon impact before collapsing on its side, still warm but _gone_.

She doesn't want to do it.

The teen has never killed anoything a day in her life. Inuyasha always caught 'food'. Kaede always slaughtered the 'fowl'. It was never her, outside with a bow and arrow against the beast. she has never had to understand that the meat she roasted over a flaming pit has come from an animal (that used to live) until now, and she freezes. Her throat contricts, and her fingers tighten on the shaft.

She can't do this. It is is not in her nature to step on ants on the sie walk, let alone shoot an animal that has a family to go home to. What if the doe has children? She wonders if they know how much danger their mother is in right now. She wonders if they miss her. ( It's an animal, Kagome, not a sitcom, pull yourself together!)

But she has been pulled apart, all shivery and wet at how the circle of life isn't really as awesome as Simba made it out to be. This sucks, death hurts, and she doesn't really need to pull the trigger (or release the 'bullet', technically) to know that. She remebers all too well the certain pull, the familiar coldness of the almighty One, beckoning her, pulling her closer as she feels the world get so very dark. Each time she arrives at death's doors (she is a frequent visitor), something always pulls her back. Something with silver hair.................................

Her breath hitches.

A wind blows.

She catches the sight of silver, sees the fine light golden locks blowing on the breezes...............and she lets go.

The deer pulls away, shocked and disgruntled. It runs swiftly back into the woods. Kagome has missed her target. Instead, she has hit another, quite deep in the chest- pierced his heart- quite literally. Golden eyes meet shocked brown. Syllables form on a tongue that has yet to truly grasp the sounds and make them her own.

He pulls the obtrusion from his chest-uncaring off the ripped silk, now tattered and bloody- while maintaining eye-contact with her. " What are you doing, girl?" The harsh demand seemes but a soft whisper as it floats on the zephyr, playing with her hair.

Needless to say, Kagome has no idea what to say (what AM I _doing_?) , and only stares at the taiyoukai for a very long time.

I know, this is a short chapter. But, it seemed perfect to end it here. If only i had more reviews to spur me on..................(hint::wink::nudge)


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